Caughtoffside.com: Manchester United are ready to make a £28m bid for Aston Villa midfielder James Milner. Villa have already turned down a £20m bid from Manchester City for the 24-year-old who is currently with England at their pre-World Cup training camp in Austria.

We say: Well the press is saturated with Milner rumours. Has it not occured to anyone that Villa may be just not prepared to sell him at all. The air of inevitability being banded around could be very misplaced.